“Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap?
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'you were bought at a price,' and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
This great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical
concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, compassion, historical
necessity or even social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought
up on traditional concepts. The Incarnation is the ultimate reason why the service of God cannot be divorced from the service of man.
In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 1937
It was a risk on day in stocks.
No particular reason. Just another wave in the endless wash and rinse.
The Dollar chopped up a little higher.
VIX fell.
Gold and silver were hammered back, most likely in observance of the future options expiration today on the Comex. I have been including the schedules with the charts.
Take it for what it's worth.
It's routine stuff compared to all the other things they do in this masquerade of evil.
"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?"
Mark 23:33
Julian Assange is being 'freed' today, and is taking a plea deal to basically escape the lengthy persecution he has endured for the past 12 years, on behalf of the US and its client states in the UK and Sweden.
And he was largely abandoned by the global media. Little wonder they are not respected.
Just another truly despicable chapter in the moral decline of the Western leaders and elites.
Like using outlawed cluster bombs to kill innocents on holiday, including children, on a beach in Sevastopol.
And as a goodby gift, apparently he is being compelled to take a private jet from his kangaroo trial in the Western Pacific, and will have to pay the Australian government $520,000 for it according to his wife, Stella.
Julian’s travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: Julian will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for charter Flight VJ199. He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia. Any contribution big or small is much appreciated.
In addition, and after 14 years of detention, including five years in maximum security prison, Julian’s health is in dire need of recovery. We are launching an emergency appeal to seek donations to help him cover the flight debt and substantial funds to ensure his recovery and well-being and safety upon his arrival. Crowdfunding Appeal for Assange
We are better than this. We should be ashamed.
The West needs to think seriously about whom it is that we serve.
"But I know in my heart who I love, and that I want to be a part of that love forever, forsaking all else, all material stature and advantage which I now see as a falsehood and thin veneer over a slow demise. And so I have chosen, and struggle on to that outcome, one day at a time. And this is how it is and how it will be for all who have chosen the way. Love is our destination, but while we are here on earth it can only be a journey, a continuing way of life, as we struggle on as best we can, to a final holy rest and peace at the last."
Jesse, Obedience Without Love: The Leaven of the Pharisees, 5 April 2017
Have a pleasant evening.
